Henry Rathbone and the Lincoln Assassination

'...when I think of that fiend barring himself in with us, my blood runs cold'
-Clara Harris, in a letter dated April 29th, 1865


On the night of April 14th, 1865, actor and Southern sympathizer John Wilkes Booth fired a shot that changed American history. If any man was in the place to prevent the murder of President Lincoln, surely it was Henry Rathbone, late a major of the 12th United States Infantry. Rathbone's failure to save the President's life defined the rest of his life, and it was an obsession that led him to commit a savage and tragic crime of his own.

Henry Reed Rathbone was born in 1837 - the first year of the Victorian Age - in Albany, New York. His father, a local politican, left him a small fortune in his will, enabling him to pursue an education and a career as a lawyer. Rathbone's mother remarried, marrying Senator Ira Harris. Harris' daughter Clara thus became young Henry's step-sister, but in time she would also become his romantic interest.

Rathbone was a Union man, and answered his country's call when civil war broke out in the spring of 1861. The young lawyer's political influence earned him the rank of Captain within the 12th United States Infantry Regiment. Captain Henry Rathbone subsequently marched under McClellan, Burnside, and Meade in the Army of the Potomac, fighting at Antietam and Fredericksburg.

Rathbone had reached the pinnacle of his military career in the early months of 1865 - the Union victory found him with the rank of major, still in the 12th Infantry. The North's triumph occurred around the same time as a personal accomplishment for the young officer. Shortly before the events of April 14th, 1865, the beautiful and sociable Clara Harris agreed to marry her step-brother, who was three years her junior.

The Assassination of President Lincoln

In April of 1865, President Abraham Lincoln, half a year into his second term, was a weary man. He was aging prematurely and, with his political fortunes having been determined by the victories and defeats of his generals, he was more aware than most of how 'near-run a thing' the Union victory truly was. Having spent the afternoon enjoying an intimate carriage-ride with his wife, Mary Todd-Lincoln, the President now had plans to see the popular British play Our American Cousin at Ford's Theater.

President and Mrs. Lincoln had intended to make a 'double-date' out of their attendance, inviting Lieutenant General Ulysses Grant and his wife Julia to accompany them. The Grants politely declined the offer - much to the frustration of John Wilkes Booth, who had aspired to kill the President and his favorite general at the same time. Several other couples were invited but declined, until finally the Lincolns invited Major Rathbone and his fiance. Mrs. Lincoln's friendship with the younger woman appears to have influenced this selection.

The events of the evening of April 14th, 1865, are among the most iconic and tragic in American history. Amidst the thunderous applause of their fellow theater-goers, the two couples took their seats in the Presidential Box in Ford's Theater. Partway through the play, the President affectionately grasped his wife's hand in his own, and Mary, pleasantly surprised at her husband's rare public display of affection, gasped "what will Miss Harris think of my hanging on to you so?" President Lincoln replied "she won't think anything about it." Those were his last words.

A few moments later, John Wilkes Booth, one of the most famous actors of his generation, the heart-throb of thousands of American women and a melodramatic Southern sympathizer, fired his Derringer pistol into President Lincoln's brain. Only Major Rathbone himself seems to have immediately realized what had just happened, and he moved to grab Wilkes. The actor shouted 'freedom!' as he struggled free of Rathbone's grasp, and brutally stabbed the officer in the arm with his secondary weapon, a long dagger.

Booth jumped down from the Presidential Box, leaving President Lincoln unconscious and dying, and Major Rathbone bleeding profusely but very much alive. The assassin, aware that history's eyes were upon him, was an actor to the last. He shouted 'Sic Semper Tyrannis' ('thus always to tyrants'), before forcing his way across the stage and out a back entrance. None of the actors tried to stop him, and many in the audience gasped in fear or chuckled in amusement, thinking the entire thing was merely a part of the show.

Major Rathbone, incredulous at the audience's reaction, desperately pleaded 'Stop that man! Will no one stop that man?!' Only gradually did the audience begin to realize what had just happened in the Presidential Box, while the President and the Major's ladies both frantically looked to their wounded men. Booth had used a music stand to bar the door to the Box, but when a group of men finally managed to push through, Rathbone urged them to look to his own wound before attending to the President.

Rathbone was present as Lincoln's guest, not his bodyguard, and he did make a valiant effort to detain the assassin. That said, his failure to hold on to Booth, and his selfish request that his wound be treated first, leave it impossible to regard him as any sort of hero. While history itself has largely overlooked the Major's failure at Ford's Theater - Rathbone seems to have never forgiven himself.

The Murder of Clara Rathbone

President Lincoln died in the morning of Saturday April 15th, 1865. His murderer only managed to outlive him a few weeks. John Wilkes Booth was fatally shot after being cornered in a tobacco barn by a party of New York cavalry. In May of 1865, Booth's accomplices, David Herold, Lewis Powell, and George Atzerodt were executed, along with Mrs. Mary Surratt, a Southern sympathizer and alleged supporter of the assassin and his cronies. The newly-reunited nation continued, now under the less impressive leadership of Lincoln's controversial vice-president, Andrew Johnson.

Henry Rathbone, now a Union veteran returned to civilian life, recovered from the gruesome injury he sustained on that fateful night. Nonetheless, the marriage between Henry and Clara did not take place until July of 1867. The events in Rathbone's life between 1867 and 1882 are modernly obscure, but his marriage to Clara was seemingly happy and produced three children.

Nonetheless, Rathbone, not unlike the President's widow, was a deeply troubled individual, scarred for life by the events of April 14th, 1865. His regret over his failure to prevent the tragedy turned into an unhealthy obsession, an example of what contemporary doctors would have called 'monomania'.

In 1882, Henry Rathbone was appointed American consul to Hanover, Germany, a capacity in which he served until December of the next year. Rathbone was accompanied by Clara and their three children. During their stay in Germany, his obsession with the Lincoln Assassination became more intense, and increasingly violent.

On December 23rd of 1883, Rathbone behaved strangely - among other things he physically threatened his children. Later that evening, he approached his wife with a pistol, and shot her. As she slumped to the floor, merely wounded, Rathbone descended on her with a knife and stabbed the screaming woman to death. Having finished his bloody crime, Rathbone stabbed himself with the same knife in a failed attempt at suicide.

The next morning, German police entered the American consul's house to a gruesome spectacle. Both Rathbones were laying on the floor drenched in their own blood. Henry was alive but clearly insane, telling the police that there were people hiding behind the paintings on the walls.

Henry Rathbone, his family and his career ruined and his insanity regarded as official, was placed in an insane asylum in Hildesheim, Germany. Here he lingered on until August of 1911, when he died and was buried next to his wife. Their graves, in the city cemetary of Hanover, were demolished in 1952.

All of Rathbone's children were taken back to America, where they were raised by their maternal uncle William Harris. The eldest Rathbone child, Henry Riggs Rathbone, went on to become a US Congressman. Interestingly, Henry Rathbone Jr. was born on February 12th, 1870 - what would have been Abraham Lincoln's 61st birthday. History does not tell us whether his father appreciated this dark irony.